Out & about with the 2x3 Crown Graphic yesterday.101mm optar.Ilford Delta 400 film (120 roll film back).
Shot at London's Victoria Station,with a 'special' steam train heading for Canterbury,Kent.
http://www.watercressline.co.uk
go to LETTERS on the right of the front page,see letter marked HORACE WARD,and tap on one,two,three,four pictures at the bottom on the letter.
All pictures were taken within 5 minutes as the train left at 11.50am.Good,because the cold wind really blew along the platform.

As before,people still look at the Graphic in amazement as well as the engine-actually both built over a half century ago,so the camera has something in common with the steam engine (in preservation)they are both going stronge,a quick inspection,a brush up,and away we go!

On 2004-04-08 05:03, Graflex Sid wrote:
Out & about with the 2x3 Crown Graphic yesterday.101mm optar.Ilford Delta 400 film (120 roll film back).
Shot at London's Victoria Station,with a 'special' steam train heading for Canterbury,Kent.
http://www.watercressline.co.uk
go to LETTERS on the right of the front page,see letter marked HORACE WARD,and tap on one,two,three,four pictures at the bottom on the letter.
All pictures were taken within 5 minutes as the train left at 11.50am.Good,because the cold wind really blew along the platform.

As before,people still look at the Graphic in amazement as well as the engine-actually both built over a half century ago,so the camera has something in common with the steam engine (in preservation)they are both going stronge,a quick inspection,a brush up,and away we go!

Keep those Graphics working at all costs..
Greetings from London.

Sid, what shutter speed/aperture combinations did you use for those shots? I ask because I've been having difficulty convincing myself to use films faster than ISO 100 in most situations.

Very nice shots, Sid. It calls to mind a most pleasant day last July when I visited the Railway Museum in York.

I had a similar reaction at the Reading (Pennsylvania, that is) Air Show a few years ago when I brought along my Century Graphic to shoot the B-17 and B-25 bombers, although in that case there was an anachronism (my Century dates "only" from 1954!).

I am using Ilford XP2 Super 120 in Graphic RH10 (6x7) roll film back and am very pleased with the results. I rate it at 100, though, not the 400 that Ilford rates it.

Thank you,Dan (and of course,the rest)we are going through a patch of constant bad weather here at the moment,enough to try the patience of a saint...you know sunshine/showers where the light falls below zero.
The exposure was about 1/100th at f.8 for the 400iso,and dev in a Universal non-fine grain mixture to strengthen the neg...the computer Adobe photoshop done the rest.

100iso is fine,but a faster film brings out the latitude,or to put it another way,not so 'contrasty'as a slower film,especially for buildings etc.

Mark you,what you see here is extreme (dull,overcast) conditions,BUT I would'nt have used flash either-you then kill the atmosphere of the subject matter.In the right conditions,I would have also used fine grain dev as well.With years of experience I don't bother with an exposure meter either-guess work!
...with everything that's going on,remembering to pull out the dark slide is far more important-on this occasion I pulled that out before I left home.With subjects like this,they are purely a one off & you cannot re-shoot,dark slides are a menace.

By the way,picture one,I held the Crown just above the head and pointed down slightly to capture the crowd awaiting the train coming into the platform (on the right).The back was a R10.I was carrying a spare,but the time this would have been reloaded the whole scene would have changed & the train gone.

It was though everything was on fast forward,you see it-then you don't...and a good test that a Graphic can still operate at speed (no pun intended)whatever the condition.Dull or shine.Mark you,it leaves you a little mentally jaded wondering if the whole thing had come out!...in the tank,and YES it has...

Us Brits are a little eccentric as you know...standing next to me all of a sudden on the platform was a guy in white shorts & top, a bicycle (freezing cold remember)asking did he have time to pop down the road to buy a paper before the train left?.
"Yes,five minutes" I said...I cannot remember if he boarded the train or what,because he disappeared in a puff of smoke (if you see what I mean).
Didn't Noel Coward write a song about the mad Englishmen that come out in the midday sun.
I thought of this at the time...we do see life out with our Graflex.I now know how Weegee felt on the trail of human flotsam.

On the otherhand,people around me must think I've stepped out of the past with my plate camera.

Seriously, the weather was perfect both times I visited England ('02 and '03): sunny and mild for almost four weeks (total) in July; I think it rained only once. We are looking forward to another fortnight in Oxford this July. I like to come over to practice me English.

....the letter dated April 7th.shows the B/W done with the 2x3 CROWN GRAPHIC (scroll down)...the more recent letter dated April 17th.showing pictures of the same event,were NOT with the Graphic.Just in case of confusion and setting the record straight.
This site on Railways is constantly changing.

I was photographing a newsstand in our local bus station. The newsstand has been there as long as the station, since 1933 and it was going to be forced to close to make way for a big new bus station.
The same family has run the stand since '33.

Anyway I lift the 'Crown to my eye and gaze through the frame viewfinder. A voice comes from inside: "What paper am I going to be in"?
She'd have been disappointed if i'd truthfully said "Ilford Multigrade"!
Like Sid said. With a SLR, digital or otherwise you just look like part of the scenery. The Graphic STILL makes you a professional photographer, despite being almost sixty years old.